


Colorful Reminders

by NightPurity



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: But not quite, Canon Timeline, M/M, Soul Scars, Soulmate AU, Yknow that au where soulmates have colored marks where their other halfs scars are, kinda angst, shance, what even are tags?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-15 03:32:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14151024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightPurity/pseuds/NightPurity
Summary: In which Soulmates scars decorate their other halfs body in colored marks.Shiro doesn’t know what to think when he’s four and there is a long ocean blue line slipping from hip to thigh, and when he shows his mother, she gets a look akin to surprise and mild pain, which grows into something more agonizing when another line immediately follows along his chest, a darker blue just under his collar bone.“Oh no.” She hugs him and doesn’t say anything else.





	Colorful Reminders

**Author's Note:**

> Eyy, it me, A Mess.
> 
> Also, this is a very late birthday gift to my partner Umi, and I swear that I didn't mean to misfile it, and thank leggs I found it. (If I hadn't been scouring one of my fandom files for a wip I stg is in there I wouldn't have found it)
> 
> Anywho, Soulmate Au where Soulmates have Soul Scars, colored marks on their partner's skin where the other's scar would be.

Shiro always thought his mother was pretty, she had little lines of maroon kissing her cheeks in the same place his father’s scars from an attempted mugging were, though his father’s weren’t maroon. His mother had more maroon ones on her back and on her side, and then regular scars on her hands and fingers, and one long one down her leg from a surgery when she was young.

 

His father’s scars matched hers, though where hers were colored in maroon, his weren’t colored at all, but those that she had uncolored were vibrant baby blue on his father.

 

They didn’t tell him what they were, not when he asked the first time. They told him to wait.

 

So he did.

 

Shiro doesn’t know what to think when he undresses for bed one night when he’s four and there is a long ocean blue line slipping from his right hip to thigh. When he shows his mother, she looks surprised and in mild pain, pity he recognizes. She jumps and when Shiro looks down, there a longer, thicker, and darker blue line sliding across his chest, just under his collar bone low enough it would hide below his shirt.

 

His mother’s face grows more agonized, and she tears up and hugs him, a simple heartbroken “Oh no.” the only thing she says. He asks, and she doesn’t say anything.

 

He’s in third grade when his parents tell him.

 

All those pretty little and large blue lines and some jagged ones were where scars were on his soulmate. His mother smiles sadly at him while his father puts a hand on his shoulder, never the vocally comforting type.

 

“My… My soulmate is hurt?” Shiro asks, startled and suddenly finding the marks not so pretty anymore. His mother pulls him into a hug and rubs his back as he starts to cry for his soulmate, his soulmate who has more scars than he did, even if the color fades a bit as his soulmate’s scars fade.

 

“Does… Does my soulmate get mine?” Shiro asks, and with his mother’s nod, he glances to the scar on his right forearm, the one that he got when he had been three and fallen off a stool and trying to catch himself on the counter only for the corner of the counter to get him.

 

“I don’t like it. They hurt a lot.” Shiro mumbled and his parents share a look over his head he doesn’t understand.

 

“They’ll be okay, I promise Takashi.”

 

Shiro covers the lines the best his can, unwilling to display the scars his soulmate has, unwilling to display their pain to the world. He doesn’t understand how many others do, it feels wrong for him, and he doesn’t like to show them.

 

People give him pitying looks or ones of sadness. He is ten when he realizes that his soulmate isn’t okay wherever they are, there are a lot of scars, little ones, faded one, large ones, dark ones, its worrying.

 

He pretends they are just clumsy, anything to escape the worry and fear he feels every time another long dark line appears.

 

His soulmate isn’t okay and that scares him, it hurts him every time he sees another little thin blue line appear, another group of jagged ones on his side.

 

He hopes he never gains many like that, afraid of how his own soulmate would feel.

 

Shiro is 15 when he gets accepted into the Garrison.

 

He studied hard, to make his parents proud, to accomplish his dream, to become someone who can support and protect his soulmate. He’s determined to find them, to free them of the scars they get, to protect them from gaining more.

 

He’s 17 when he meets a bright teen, only two and half years younger than him. Bright blue eyes, sun kissed tan skin, silky milk chocolate locks, and a beaming smile.

 

Shiro doesn’t speak to the teen until four months before he leaves on the Kerberos mission.

 

It was a brief conversation, both out after curfew, Shiro escaping pressure of the training and such for the mission, the younger teen slipping out of the library.

 

It’s not much conversation rather than light chat, warning each other not to get caught, and then the teen is turning to leave, waving his right arm that's sleeve slides down just enough to see the tip of a violet purple line disappearing into his sleeve.

 

Shiro’s mind doesn’t connect its right where his own scar is, not until later the next morning.

 

He doesn’t find the teen before he leaves for Kerberos.

 

When he’s captured by the Galra, he can only feel a sinking dread. He’s afraid, afraid for his soulmate, afraid for his team, for _himself_.

 

Every time he’s in the arena, he leaves with new scars, and he can only trace his soulmate’s blue lines for comfort, only for more anguish to follow in after it, imagining all the lines and shapes appearing on his soulmate’s skin, mapping out every sign that the Galra are putting him through hell.

 

Then they take his arm, his arm that had his first scar, his first mark to his soulmate’s skin and he can only imagine the mark on his soulmate’s skin from where they took his arm.

 

He feels ill.

 

He’s 19 when he crash lands back on earth, and despite his memory loss, he recognizes blue eyes, sun kissed tan skin, and milk chocolate hair. Other than mild surprise and something he can’t decipher in the teen, Lance’s, eyes, there is no hesitation when they shake hands.

 

Then everything is fighting and  _ chaos _ .

 

Lance is nearly killed by the false Rover protecting Coran, and after all is said and done, Lance is healing in the cryopod, Shiro is taking a shower when he happens to glance at his reflection in the perfectly smooth and reflective metal of the Altean shower and he freezes.

 

His entire back is like a terribly beautiful canvas of an ocean, dark blue in the center that fades and darkens like waves out to his shoulders, sides, and hips.

 

Its horribly beautiful and he hates himself for thinking it is, and he’s just turning off the shower when his eyes launch back to the reflection, wide and full of sudden realization.

 

That scar wasn’t there before, he _knows_ it wasn’t.

 

He mapped out every blue mark he could find from his soulmate while he was in captivity, it was a sense of morbid relief, that they were there and not gone because his soulmate was alive, because someone who held the other part of his soul was okay even if he wasn’t. It anchored him so madness wouldn’t take hold.

 

Every little blue line a reminder that despite the pain his soulmate must have been in, they were alive, and each little soul scar is there reminding him that his soulmate is strong enough to bare them.

 

As he stared at the terrifying ocean on his back, he realized it was slowly, ever so slowly, fading along the edges and vanishing. Immediately he threw his clothes on, rushing out to the medbay because no scar ever truly faded away and never that quickly.

 

Coming to a stop before Lance, Shiro noticed slight violet purple lines peeking on his skin, and belatedly he realized it was concealer that had come off slightly from sweat, blood, and probably from whatever Coran quickly wiped across his face (Altean disinfectant his mind supplied in a guess).

 

Lance…

 

Lance might be his soulmate.

 

Nearly choking on his breath, Shiro slumped to sit before Lance, eyes wide as he thought back to every scar he mapped out on his skin and memorized, every tell of Lance’s pain throughout their life, little moments of clumsiness, and from something that he couldn’t pretend was clumsiness.

 

His stomach rolled when he realized that  _ every one of his scars was mapped out along Lance’s body exactly like his own only in color. _

 

What had he put Lance through? How had Lance felt every time such a line or mark appeared? Was he terrified? Was he scared and worrying about his soulmate?

 

Shiro wasn’t sure how to feel about all this.

 

It hurt, it was relieving, it was confusing.

 

Why didn’t Lance say anything? He had to have known because the scar along the bridge of his nose wasn’t exactly subtle-ah, but he had to confirm, for all he knew someone else could have a similar scar.

 

_ That doesn’t make sense Shirogane, get it together! Who else could suddenly have a large scar on their back that suddenly fades and disappears within a few hours of appearing? _

 

Taking a deep breath, Shiro let it out and cleared his mind the best he could.

 

They were soulmates, they had to be.

 

Oh quiznak they were in a war, they were soulmates, they couldn’t focus on that with them fighting for their lives as well as the universes could they?

 

Of course they could, this was just as important.

 

Lance was important and Shiro promised himself that when he met his soulmate, he would protect them and ensure that to the best of his ability that a blue mark won’t appear on his skin again, because he wouldn’t let his soulmate be harmed.

 

It wasn’t as easy to keep that determination when just hours ago- _ What time was it? Does time matter in space? Whatever, not important right now _ . What was important was he was supposed to be protecting his soulmate yet he let anger overtake him and they were captured by Sendak, and Lance had to come out of a  _ coma _ to help stop Sendak.

 

What kind of soulmate was he? What kind of  _ leader _ was he?

 

Looking up at Lance’s face, the concealer having come off more in the cryopod, Shiro steeled himself.

 

He wouldn’t let anything else harm Lance, he wouldn’t let anymore scars grace Lance nor would he fall short again.

 

Not if he could help it.

 

He promised after all, and he wouldn’t go back on it.

 

His soulmate needed him, and he would admit as well that he also needed his soulmate.

 

They would work it out, they would talk and figure it out but Shiro was going to try.

 

He wanted to try, ever since he found out exactly what the blue markings on his skin were.

 

The marks that decorated both their skin confirmed his determination.

 

He promised again, to Lance this time.

 

“I’ll protect you. Never again will I let another mark appear, not if I can help it. I’ll protect you.”

**Author's Note:**

> There a second part to this... just... in my files.....
> 
>  
> 
> Somewhere.


End file.
